50 Holiday Trivia Questions and Answers

1. Before flat paper bags became common, New Mexico luminarias were often what?

2. In what year was the first commercial Christmas card sold in England?

3. Which royal is credited with making Christmas trees popular in Victorian Britain?

4. Who created Kwanzaa in 1966?

5. The name Santa Claus grew out of the Dutch nickname for which saint?

6. In what year did the first New Year's Eve ball drop happen in Times Square?

7. What is the Scottish name for New Year's Eve celebrations?

8. Acoma Pueblo's holiday road display uses more than roughly how many luminarias?

9. The calendar that took effect on January 1, 45 BCE, and kept January 1 as the start of the year, is named after which Roman leader?

10. What happens to a muskox's qiviut as Arctic spring arrives?

11. In Spain, how many grapes do people traditionally eat at midnight on New Year's Eve?

12. In which country do children wait for 13 mischievous Yule Lads before Christmas?

13. Which winter weather word becomes something found on a bed when its second letter changes from L to H?

14. Which Mexican tradition reenacts a search for lodging on the nine nights before Christmas?

15. In Italian folklore, who brings gifts to children on the night of January 5?

16. Which Persian celebration marks the longest night of the year with pomegranates and watermelon?

17. What color do many Brazilians wear on New Year's Eve for good luck?

18. How many times are temple bells traditionally struck in Japan around midnight on New Year's Eve?

19. In Scotland, what is it called to be the first visitor through the door after midnight on New Year?

20. On which night of Kwanzaa is the big Karamu feast held?

21. Which Italian sweet bread, linked to the city of Milan, is a holiday favorite?

22. Which German city is famous for its Christmas stollen?

23. Which French holiday cake is shaped and decorated like a log?

24. Which ancient Mesoamerican people made a frothy drink from cacao long before hot cocoa?

25. The earliest documented Dresden stollen contained only flour, yeast and what third ingredient?

26. Which Christmas Eve meal popular with Italian Americans is built around seafood?

27. What makes panettone rise into its characteristically tall, airy loaf?

28. Which sweet rice balls are traditionally eaten in China for the winter solstice festival Dongzhi?

29. Lebkuchen, a holiday treat famously made in Nuremberg, is a German kind of what?

30. Which Spanish Christmas nougat is made mainly from almonds and honey?

31. Who became the first person to photograph a single snowflake, in 1885?

32. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the least of what?

33. What are the feathery ice crystals that coat trees when freezing fog drifts through called?

34. Snow crystals grow in six-sided shapes because of how which molecules link together as they freeze?

35. What winter change helps a reindeer's hooves grip icy ground?

36. The protected name Panforte di Siena carries which European quality mark?

37. The poinsettia, a classic holiday plant, is native to which country?

38. Written references to figgy pudding reach back to which century?

39. What is the scientific name for the northern lights?

40. Which penguin species lays its eggs and raises chicks through the harsh Antarctic winter?

41. Kwanzaa begins on December 26. On what date does it end?

42. How many Sundays are there in the Advent season before Christmas?

43. What is the Swahili name for the seven principles of Kwanzaa?

44. Kiritimati, one of the first inhabited places to ring in each new year, belongs to which country?

45. Many Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar celebrate Christmas on which date?

46. Boxing Day is celebrated on which date?

47. One proposed origin story for Rio Grande luminarias begins with a guiding trail of fires in which year?

48. Panforte, a dense holiday cake of honey, nuts and spices, is a specialty of which Italian city?

49. Which winter holiday uses a seven-branched candleholder called a kinara?

50. Chinese New Year is also widely known by what other name?